10-7-18 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Genesis 2:18-24 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

Pentecost 20 October 7, 2018 “Marriage: Made by God”

“What God has established the devil seeks to destroy.” I ran across that sentence this week from a commentator describing the verses of Genesis before us this morning, read earlier in our First Lesson.

And it strikes me that this is a general truth that can be applied to many specific situations and circumstances. Of course, the theme of our service today invites us to consider one particular example.

God made marriage. He established it, and the devil seeks to destroy it.

We might well notice the devil’s attacks on marriage and related issues like family and children just by considering how our society views these things. In general at least, our society certainly does not view God as the originator of marriage, and the results and implications of this view are all around us. People attempt to redefine marriage in their own ways. Divorce ends marriages on a regular, even frequent pace.

Children are born to parents who are not married and don’t or can’t provide a stable family support system for them. Diseases spread, relationships become violent and abusive, and our list of the devil’s attacks could continue.

But the devil doesn’t just attack marriage outside of the church or in society in general. No, he is eager to attack it in our hearts and lives as well. Let’s not deny that we are capable of all sorts of evil in response to the devil’s temptations. But let’s also consider some of the more subtle ways that Satan attacks marriage in our midst as well. In our own marriages, how often is there anger instead of love? How often is there joking instead of respect and honor? How often do we fail to live up to the specific roles that God intends for us in that relationship? And don’t suppose that this sermon and this service apply only to people who are married or plan to one day get married. It is for them, but it’s for all Christians, married or single alike. Satan is happy to attack simply our attitudes and our views on the subjects of marriage, of children, of human sexuality, and of all other gifts of God. That is why we need to start by understanding that marriage is indeed made by God. Our verses from the book of Genesis record how God instituted marriage. He had in six days created the world and all that is in and around it, but there was still something incomplete about it. Everything God had made on each day was “good” and “very good,” but when he saw a single man whom he had formed out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, he said this was not good. It was not good for man to be alone. It was not according to God’s plan to have a single man without companionship. God directed Adam to name all of the animals that came to him. When he did, Adam with his perfect reason thought what God thought and realized that he was alone. The animals had mates and would have offspring, but Adam had no one like him. God took special care and concern in this matter, leading Adam to realize what an amazing gift God would give him in a spouse.

And then God acted. He took a bone from Adam’s side and from it formed a woman. She was a “suitable helper” for Adam, someone perfectly matched to him, different in many ways, but in ways that would be complimentary. They would together find deep companionship and joy. They would experience sexual happiness and be able to have and raise children. Their relationship would be the building block of families and societies. They would have each other for their entire lives.

What amazing joy and amazing beauty is there in God’s plan. In response to seeing it unfold, Adam shares a love poem to his wife and to God who gave her to him. And all are in agreement that God’s plan is indeed very good. It is a perfect plan for a perfect marriage in a perfect garden. Every aspect is perfect, and a sinless husband and wife rejoice in the unique roles into which God has placed each of them.

But that doesn’t sound like marriage today, does it? Perfect is the very last adjective we might use to describe marriage today. No, there is quite obviously a problem. It’s a problem that didn’t take long to develop in the history of marriage, but it has been a problem ever since. The problem is that people have ruined God’s perfect marriage plan by their sin. The very next chapter of the book of Genesis records how Adam and Eve were tempted to turn away from God’s commands and how they fell into sin. It tells about

how the consequences of their actions were immediate and severe. Their once perfect relationship changed into something else, something that sounds and seems much more familiar to us. They blamed each other and acted in ways that showed not love but selfishness. They were banished from the Garden of Eden and would continue to live in a marriage that, though not perfect, still offered many blessings.

There would be consistent challenges in their marriage, but God would still bless them with deep levels of companionship, with children, and with sexual happiness.

The problem of sin in marriages clearly showed itself at Jesus’ time when the Pharisees came to test Jesus.

They selected as their test a question about divorce. Surely Jesus couldn’t say that divorce was evil, after all, the law of Moses allowed it. Certainly the Pharisees new of many Jews who looked on marriage as something that could be entered into or exited from as they desired. Whether at the time of Moses or at the time of Jesus, marriage was not always the lifelong commitment that God made it to be. Indeed marriages throughout history have included various levels of distrust, disappointment, and divorce.

And that continues today. Sin still plagues marriages, just like it plagues every aspect of our lives.

Marriage has been remade in so many ways in a sinful, self-centered, and self-serving way. The same issue is found in so many other aspects of our lives as well, illustrating just how sinful, selfish, and self-serving we are.

But there is a solution. The solution was promised when Adam and Eve first needed one, and that promise was passed down to their children and their children’s children. That promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. We heard him in today’s Gospel (Mark 10:2-16) upholding the value and the blessing of marriage as God gave it. We saw him in today’s Gospel blessing and welcoming children. We see him and hear him throughout Scripture demonstrating love and honoring what God has made.

The solution is that Jesus loves his bride, the church, so much that did everything for her. He even gave up his very own life in order to make her holy. His words were never mere lip-service. His actions were always consistent. His love is always sincere. And yes, that love for you and for me, for married people and single people, for adults and children, took him all the way to the cross where he died for all sins.

And this is the reason that marriages today can still be the blessing that God has intended. Husbands and wives, though imperfect, can forgive each other and love each other and act in the interest of the other. It is the love of Jesus that truly allows us to love others in a marriage relationship or in any other relationship. Marriage was made by God and it was redeemed and remade by God, so that it continues to bless people as he made it to do.

So we will want to take our cue from Jesus and do as he does. We will want to uphold and value marriage as a gift from God. We will want to look to God’s Word to learn about marriage and to define it as he does. We will want to flee from society’s false ideas about love and marriage and intimacy. We will want to avoid using only fickle emotions and feelings to determine how we treat these issues.

As married people, that means living according to the roles God has established for us, a high calling—an incredibly high calling—for both husbands and wives. For those who are single, whether or not they might marry in the future, that means respecting the boundaries that God has established and honoring his gift of marriage even when the temptation might be to denigrate or disrespect it. And for all of us, it means seeking to live chaste, decent, and honorable lives.

The devil has indeed done his best to destroy marriage, just as he has from the beginning. But God in his love continues to bless societies, families, and couples through this special gift. Marriage is made by God. May we therefore honor and uphold it.

The Text: Genesis 2:18–24 (NIV) 18

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19

Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

24

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.